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Re: GNUstep Weekly Editorial 26-10-2001
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From: |
Pascal Bourguignon |
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Subject: |
Re: GNUstep Weekly Editorial 26-10-2001 |
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Date: |
Sat, 27 Oct 2001 22:06:39 +0200 (CEST) |
> On Fri, 26 Oct 2001 05:33:09 +0200
> dennis@made-it.com wrote:
> > Adam updated the task list for version 0.7.5 the list is online
> > at [1]http://www.gnustep.org/developers/tasks.html
>
> What exactly is Preferences.app supposed to do? IIRC, the original
> was also used to, not only set GUI, but also system-wide behaviour,
> like start-up.
> That would probably be a bit difficult as nearly every Linux
> distribution uses it's own start-up system, eg SuSE/Yast has
> everything in one file - let alone other OSes, like BSD, Solaris
> or HP/UX ...
The features of Preferences.app are not fixed, it loads dynamicly
modules from (/NextApps/Preferences.app, /NextLibrary/Preferences,
/LocalLibrary/Preferences). Here is a list of the preference modules
installed on my OPENSTEP 4.2 system, with the format:
Preference Title [icon description]
----------------
Data description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Preferences.app:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
McFilter Preferences [McFilter]
--------------------
GIF & JPEG imaget filter services
DefaultsSystem Preferences [pen on NeXT]
--------------------------
General Default editor
Localization Preferences [flags]
------------------------
Keyboard, Language, Measurement Units, Paper Size
Date & Time Preferences [wallclock]
-----------------------
TimeZone, 24h display, NTP Synchronization or date & time setting
depending on system time source, kind of clock to display in the
application miniwindow (dock)
Password Preferences [lock & key]
--------------------
User's Password Setting
Keyboard Preferences [keyboad]
--------------------
Initial Key Repeat, Key Repeat Rate, display keyaboad panel with
various fonts
Mouse Preferences [mouse]
-----------------
Mouse Speed, Double-Click Delay, Menu Button (enabled, disabled),
Left or Right Setting
Display Preference [display]
------------------
Automatic Scree Dimer (delay), Brightness (hardware), Background
Color
Sound Preferences [sound speaker]
-----------------
Volume, Mute, Output Balance, Input Gain, Input Balance, System
Beep (list), Audio or Visual System Beep, Use Voice Alerts flag
Font Preference [F character]
---------------
Application Font, Fixed Pitch Font, System Font, Bold System Font
Menu Preferences [menu window]
-----------------
Menu Location (graphic desktop), Command-Key Equivalents (Add,
Remove, equivalent list, Command intput text, Key Equivalent input
text.
Services Preferences [menu window on a plate hold by hand]
--------------------
Browser of services (application, item), Enable or Disable
Expert Preferences [unix grade]
------------------
File-Creation Mask ((Owner, Group, Others)x(Read,Write,Execute)),
File System Option: Unix Expert (whether to honor .hidden or not),
Large File System (whether to use lazy loading in file browsers),
Security Options: Private Window Server, Private Sound Server,
Protected EPS Display.
Startup Preferences [start symbol: circle with vertical bar inside]
-------------------
Date and time of next power on, Turn computer on: After power
off or failure, At specified time
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As you can see, Preferences.app only deals with user's preferences
which are normaly stored in the user's defaults database.
The OS administration tools are stored in /NextAdmin (but
PrinterManager.app which is stored in /NextApps and generaly usable by
any user).
Here is a list of the administration tools available on OPENSTEP 4.2:
BuildDisk.app
-------------
Format disks and copy installations.
Configure.app
-------------
Device driver configuration.
HostManager.app
---------------
NetInfo: host data, NTP configuration, automatic host
configuration (DHCP).
Installer.app
-------------
Package installation/removal.
InstallTablet.app
-----------------
Tablet driver installation application.
NetInfoManager.app
------------------
General netinfo database editor.
NetInstallHelper.app
--------------------
OS installation over the net to several clients.
NetWareManager.app
-----------------
NetWare administration.
NFSManager.app
--------------
NFS administration (import, exports).
SimpleNetworkStarter.app
------------------------
Use the network, but don't share administrative data, or
Access shared network resources as a client (netinfo), or
Provide the services specified below (Services).
Host name, IP address, Router (none, dynamic, ip adddress),
netmask (default, automatic, mask), broadcast address (default,
address), NIS domain name, Limit access to local NetInfo data to
the local network.
NetInfo Options: Create the master for a new 2-level NetINfo
hierarchy, Create a clone of a master on another network master
address.
Services: Maintain the master copy of network administrative
data. Limit access to administrative data to the local
network. Automatically add new NEXTSTEP systems to the
network. Require a password to add new computers to the
network. Run network time server software on this
computer. Maintain the network's email server. Support SNMP
network management. Directories exported to the network (Home for
network users, Shared applications, Shared data).
UserManager.app
---------------
NetInfo: users and groups, bulk create, bulk delete.
PrintManager.app
----------------
Editing printer & fax, queue management.
Here, the tools generaly store administrative data (system-wide) in
NetInfo, and the administrator must authentificate himself as
root. Some of these parameters are stored in /etc/hostconfig too.
In conclusion, I would say that:
- the Preference.app can be a 100% pure GNUstep application.
- most of the preferences modules can be 100% pure GNUstep modules,
merely editing the user's defaults database.
- some of the preferences modules would need to set parameters of
the underlying display system (X windows, DPS, etc). Methods for
setting these parameters should be publied by the backends. We
may need backend specific preferences modules to set backend
specific parameters.
Regarding the administration tools, I would say that:
- their need depends on whether we want a stand-alone GNUstep
system or we just use GNUstep as a GUI object library running
over any unix system. I mean that administrators may be quite
happy to use linuxconf, yast or whatever, while users will still
benefit GNUstep for their applications.
- in the former case, where we want a GNUstep standalone system,
obviously we don't need to have a brazillion of variants. A
standalone GNUstep system could build and manage its own
distribution of whatever system (bsd, linux, darwin, etc).
- in any case, we may want to offer GNUstep administrative tools
usable on a range of system and distribution, and usable to
uniformly administrate various systems and distributions on a
network. Note then that whatever the format and low-level setting
used by a specific system the administrative data is always the
same. At least, the high level data presented to the
administrator. Therefore we could structure the administrative
tools with a generic front-end, and back-ends specific to a
distribution class.
--
__Pascal_Bourguignon__ (o_ Software patents are endangering
() ASCII ribbon against html email //\ the computer industry all around
/\ and Microsoft attachments. V_/ the world http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/
1962:DO20I=1.100 2001:my($f)=`fortune`; http://petition.eurolinux.org/
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